pencil and paper

An archaic informationstorageand transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on bleached wood pulp. More recent developmentsin paper-based technology include improved "write-once" update devices which usetiny rolling heads similar tomouse balls to deposit coloured pigment. All these devices require an operator skilled atso-called "handwriting" technique. These technologies are ubiquitous outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it. Most hackers had terrible handwriting to begin with, and years of keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further. Perhaps for this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper technology and often resist using it in any but the most trivial contexts.